The Ghost Train

Let’s start this story with the simple fact, that I am not a religious man, And I don’t truly follow any kind of religious belief. But this made me start to think that something else could be out there in this world.

This happened when I was a young man, maybe at most 15, My one buddy who has passed away recently, Was walking with me along the coal train tracks with me, Let’s stick with his nickname, We called him Seamonkey. But it was late in the evening, had recently rained and a small bit of fog had rolled into the area, and we decided, to go for a walk along the train tracks, for a bit of fun and exploration. We were always the exploring type of young kids, the old mill, the trails across the bridge, and even some of the abandoned houses of the town. But today, was different.

We both felt like something was wrong, the fog seemed thicker and almost gaseous, The smell that normal fog had the clean scent was gone, it smelled this time like rotten flesh, and blood. We thought at first that the smell was coming from a possible dead deer or other animal that might have gotten hit by one of the trains that still come through the area. But we couldn’t see anything near the tracks or even around them, We were starting to get a bit freaked out now cause the fog seemed to thicken a bit more. When we finally heard a noise. A low deep whistle, Howling through the fog and the area.

We froze in place, but quickly got off the actual tracks moving to stand in the gravel that the tracks were surrounded by, And moved closer to the edge of the hill side which dropped down to the river, thinking it might have been one of the coal trains that came through. But soon we were proven wrong, As we watched and waited, we saw it, A single glowing red light coming towards us on the tracks. We both looked at each other at this time, and Seamonkey asked me. “What the fuck?” I replied with “I have no idea, dude!” We both couldn’t even move as we watched it coming closer, only to hear that whistle blow again, This time though we both wanted to run, but we were half way through mill and the town, so we had no were to actually run.

By this time though, we could make it out, it was a train, but was different, It seemed the fog was coming from the train itself, And we could see that it was not on the tracks, but floating above it. As we stood there horrified it slowed, and stopped near us, releasing a hiss of the fog, As we stared in fear, the door on the engine opened up, and a hand extended from it, beckoning us to come closer, We backed up now, finally finding our strength in our legs, when we heard a voice come from the conductors door. “Are…you lost? Come in.” That was when Seamonkey shouted out in fear and spoke to me again. “It’s not human!” That was when I noticed it myself, we could finally see the Conductor, It was a man, in olden clothes, almost like from the fifties, but his face, was angular he had a small pencil like mustache, but his eyes, was what finally shook me out of my stupor, They were red and slightly glowing, and the whites of his eyes were black. He spoke to us again at this time.

“Come boys, I will take you were you belong, don’t be afraid.” At this Seamonkey and I backed up, and I remembered something my Mother use to always tell me, That Train tracks were the home to the lost souls, and the Devil’s train would come for those it deemed lost. As I said when I started this story, I am not religious, but I did remember the Lord’s prayer. I started reciting it. At which this man visibly recoiled lightly, before he chuckled softly. and said one last thing. “Ah…Your both still of this world, No matter, It is not your time for me it seems. Safe travels….My two lost souls.”

With that he closed the door, and the train began to move again, we watched as it passed us, looking at the windows, seeing various types of people, but they all seemed sad, and lonely, as it passed fully the fog lifted, and Seamonkey looked at me as spoke “What in the fuck was that!” With a shaky breath I watched the train continue to travel away from us and I only could answer one thing. “That…was the Grim Reaper’s train. It thought we were dead, and came for us. The Devil decided we were right…But we survived.” With that we both started to move faster, and soon reached the town again, and booked it to my house, where we told myMother what happened, she turned white and quickly stood up grabbing her cross and blessed us both, and told us. “That train will come for you both….I hope you will resist it…” Now, til this day I still see that train once a year, and hear the whistle from time to time, I know that Train is waiting for me, and when my time comes, I know I have to board it, But I warn you all, If you see this train, DON’T TAKE THE RIDE!